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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25372669">Breakout</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bossxtweed/pseuds/bossxtweed'>bossxtweed</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Study in Time Lord Parenting [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Child Abduction, Gen, The Vault (Doctor Who), Torchwood One, looms are canon, sort of thoschei ? it's referenced at least</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:47:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,564</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25372669</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bossxtweed/pseuds/bossxtweed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Not happy with Missy being locked in the Vault, Bill frees her from it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Study in Time Lord Parenting [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776127</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Breakout</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Missy held the girl tightly as she ran towards her TARDIS, away from a man and woman in working class dress with a distinct insignia stitched into the fabric above their hearts and their faces distorted into masks of cruel, heartless rage. Her daughter, her dear Genevieve, was crying in her arms, shrieking in a mixture of Old High Gallifreyan and English, and with one arm swinging at her mother’s chest, terrified but not knowing what was wrong.</p><p>“Hush, love,” Missy soothed, bouncing the girl. “We just need to get to my ship, and then----<em> oh,” </em>she hadn’t noticed the second woman lurking in the alleyway with a needle prepared in one hand. She felt a sharp prick on the side of her neck and crashed to the floor, twisting to land on her back with Genevieve held firmly against her chest. </p><p><em> “It’ll be alrigh’,” </em>Missy slurred. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision, but the world continued to swim and her eyelids grew heavier until they shut.</p><p><em> “We’ve </em> <b> <em>got </em> </b> <em> her,” </em> the man said, wrenching the crying toddler from her mother. <em> “They’ll be </em> <b> <em>very </em> </b> <em> happy about </em> <b> <em>this, </em> </b> <em> won’t they?” </em></p><p>She had <em> tried </em> to listen, to take in whatever those <em> stupid </em>humans were going on about, but their voices faded into the background as they walked away and she became dead to the world. </p><p> </p><p>A cold sweat broke out on Missy’s forehead as she sprang awake, clutching a worn doll tightly to her chest. <em> No, </em> she thought, a fury building in her, boiling even as she gently set the doll on her pillow and stood, grabbed a book off the nightstand and hurled it against the door of that <em> damned </em> vault. She could hear the Doctor’s voice, moralizing about how “you can’t change your own past! It’ll break the universe, and you’ve done that enough times, so <em> sit on your hands and play nice, or I’ll extend your time in the vault!”  </em></p><p>He didn’t know---he didn’t know she had a daughter unique to this body, a lovely little girl, although Missy feared she had not made it past the age of ten (and that was purely wishful thinking on her part, given that she had hastened to fobwatch Geni in the days leading up to her third birthday following <em> terrible </em> rumours about an organization which sought to eradicate anything <em> not from Earth.)  </em></p><p>Shaking, she sat down on the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands, letting out a sob. <em> I’m so sorry, my love, </em>she thought, and her breath caught in her throat as tears flowed down her cheeks. At scuffling from outside, she turned her head and snapped, “Go away, ye bald git!” </p><p>When the door opened, it was the Doctor’s young student who walked in.</p><p>“Er--I’m not Nardole,” Bill spoke.</p><p><em> “Oh,” </em>Missy breathed, turning to look at her, and she wiped at her eyes with one hand. “Why are you here?” </p><p>“Well…” Bill started, frowning as she took cautious steps towards Missy. “I don’t like you being locked up in here--and, before you say anything,” despite her attempt at putting on a brave face, Bill’s voice shook and she let out a breath before continuing, “I <em> don’t care </em>what the Doctor thinks. So,” standing now before Missy, Bill held out a hand, “What do y’ say?”</p><p><em> Freedom---so close she could almost taste it, </em> and she took Bill’s hand with a small nod. “Yes, yes. Let me,” she wiped at her eyes again, getting rid of those <em> damned </em> tears, “let me write the Doctor a note first. It’d be <em> rude </em>of me to leave without warning.”</p><p>Bill laughed nervously and nodded. “Alright. I’ll be waiting outside, when you’re ready,” she nodded again and made to leave the room but stopped when she saw the doll. “Did you make that?” she leaned forward and motioned to it. “It looks… old. <em> Very </em>old, in fact.”</p><p>Missy nodded, blinking back tears. “Yes, I---I made it for my daughter, a long time ago now.”</p><p>“I didn’t know you were a mother.”</p><p>Missy sighed. “I don’t talk about it much---I’m not <em> really </em> what people think of when they think ‘parent,’ not even back on Gallifrey. I was always <em> far </em> more interested in <em> blowing things up </em> and <em> conquering galaxies, </em> and the High Council tried to st---” she waved a hand, dismissing the thought. <em> She doesn’t need to know your </em> <b> <em>entire life story, </em> </b> <em> Missy. </em></p><p>After a moment of silence, Missy admitted, “shortly after I regenerated into this body, I wasn’t <em> quite </em> in the right state of mind… <em> everything </em>was funny and I wandered into my loom room---”</p><p><em> Alright, </em> she thought, <b> <em>that </em> </b> <em> deserves a chuckle!  </em></p><p>“Loom room?” Bill repeated. “What’s that?”</p><p>“Ye see, Time Lords din<em> nae </em> reproduce the same way you humans do. Instead, we use machines called ‘looms’ to have children, and there are several types of loom, depending on <em> what purpose </em> you’re creating a new Time Lord for---y’ can make an infant, a child with the mind of an adult, an adult with the mind of a child, <em> or </em> for those feeling <em> particularly </em> naughty, you can take an existing Time Lord and throw them into a loom, where their DNA will be rewritten to create someone brand new with absolutely <em> no </em>connection to who they were before.”</p><p>Another moment passed in silence before Bill said, “that sounds <em> terrifying.” </em></p><p>“It <em> is,” </em>Missy replied, flatly. “Be glad you’ll never meet the Time Lords.”</p><p>“Right,” Bill laughed awkwardly. “Um---I’ll be outside---”</p><p>“Wait,” Missy exclaimed, holding a hand out. “If you wouldn’t mind---my TARDIS is in the Doctor’s office. Small, brown, wooden clock----above the fireplace, I should imagine. You’ll know it by the low <em> humming </em>of the engines.”</p><p>Bill tilted her head to one side and thought for a moment before slowly, carefully nodding and saying, “okay, okay. I’ll get your TARDIS and then---what? You just go off and---”</p><p>“I could take you on <em> one </em> trip, if you’d like. Just… please, Bill. If I get out, maybe I’ll <em> finally </em>be able to reconnect with my little girl.”</p><p>Bill bit her lip. <em> She could be saying all this to </em> <b> <em>trick </em> </b> <em> me, </em> she thought. The Doctor and Nardole had warned her about Missy, saying she was, at her very core, an <em> evil </em> person, and that she wasn’t capable of <em> ever </em>doing good except for when it fulfilled some need of hers, but looking at her, here and now, all Bill could see was a tired, older woman with regret and sorrow hanging heavily over her. </p><p>“Okay,” Bill repeated. “But if he’s in his office?”</p><p>Missy sighed. “Dinnae come back, then. Just… leave. And don’t tell him about it---he probably already knows, anyway.”</p><p>Frowning, Bill turned and left.</p><p> </p><p>Once the thick doors of the vault were shut, Missy pulled a notebook, quill pen, and inkwell out of her nightstand, all of which she placed on the piano, in front of which she stood, shaking. Her mind both whirled and numbed, her thoughts grew woolen, and she set about writing the message as if watching herself from a distance. Part of her wanted to abandon the idea altogether. They were, after all, finally coming close to the relationship they’d once had as children. </p><p>Theta and Koschei, united against the Academy, against the Time Lords, who used and abused them both, time and time again. </p><p>And now, after several millennia of fighting back and forth, they were finally <em> together. </em> Sure, the circumstances were less than ideal (particularly with <em> Nardole </em> involved---not <em> once </em> had that man ever regarded Missy with anything less than distrust), but sometimes, if she behaved in the right way, if she played along with his games, he would turn to her and <em> smile, </em> and maybe, <em> maybe, </em> he would take her hand, and <em> oh, </em>how she longed for it.</p><p>His hand holding hers, his eyes filled with light----perhaps, even, with <em> love---- </em>a tear fell onto the paper, blurring the ink, and she cursed.</p><p><em> Another lifetime, maybe, </em>she thought, hastening to dry the paper before the text blurred too much. </p><p>She finished the note, folded it neatly, and applied lipstick before pressing a red-orange kiss to the paper. </p><p>The doors opened again and she wiped away more tears before turning towards Bill, who had succeeded in obtaining the clock.</p><p>“I’ve got it,” Bill said with a smile. “Um, interestingly enough, <em> Nardole </em>was asleep in the Doctor’s office… I didn’t even wake him.”</p><p>“You can tell me all about it once we’re out of here,” Missy told her. “I just need to grab a few things…” she fished through the nightstand, pulled out a few small items (a tube of lipstick, a miniature portrait the Doctor had made of the two of them, and some other small, miscellaneous items that she could likely do without), and finally she took up the doll, pressing it close to her chest.</p><p>“Alright, let’s go.”</p><p>They walked out, shutting the vault door behind them, and Missy told Bill to set the clock down.</p><p>“How will we get in, though? It’s far too sm--” Bill’s stopped and her eyes widened as the clock changed into a bookcase, the front of which swung inwards, revealing Missy’s TARDIS.</p><p>They walked inside and Missy set the doll atop the console before turning towards Bill, saying, “just <em> one </em>trip, yea?”</p><p>With a nervous smile, Bill nodded. “Yeah.”</p>
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